I don’t know all of the secrets of success, but I do know that the number 1 way to fail is to not try. If you have a goal you have to act upon it. You can’t just give into the fear of failure. Fear is paralyzing. Now don’t get me wrong, fear is an important tool. It keeps us from jumping into lion cages at the Zoo. Well… most of us. With our more rational goals we aren’t faced with a man eating beast. We are faced with hard work, sacrifice, time management and the possibility of failure. All of which can eat at our psyche, egos and emotions. But that’s a good thing. While chasing your goals your weaknesses will be revealed and eaten away.
Even through failure you find out a lot about yourself. You learn whether you need a better plan, a mentor or just more effort. You also find out how much mental toughness you have and it helps you to develop resilience. Resilience is the ability to bounce back, to be able to bend but not break. It’s an intangible skill that we all need, because life will bend you up for sure. So in failing we become better. If we become better we succeed. Therefore fearing failure is somehow… fearing success. Of course very few people actually fear winning a gold medal, but 90% fear everything that happens between the start of the journey and the victory. We fear being cut off of the high school varsity basketball team like Michael Jordan. We are afraid to get beat like Usain Bolt did in the 2004 Summer Olympics. That year you never heard of him because he never even made it to the finals. But it was their failure that inevitably catapulted them to greatness. What if they were afraid to try? Where would they be?
Don’t be afraid. Get out there and give your goals some great effort. If you fail, reassess the situation and try again. Accept setbacks as a part of the “level up”. Remember, you don’t have to be great to start, but you do have to start to be great.
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